Business Leaders: Your IT Leader is a Business Leader!
The relationship an IT leader has with their own leader sets the tone for the rest of the IT department and influences how the team perceives executive management. Business leaders, a productive and healthy relationship with your IT leader is essential to improving technology business alignment. It is also an effective way to reduce turnover in the IT department.
In my observations over the years, I’ve noticed that the relationship between the IT leader and the CEO is often one of the weakest relationships in the C-suite. There is less interaction, less understanding, and less camaraderie. There are certainly exceptions, but the IT leader usually gets the least face-time with the CEO. However collegiate the other relationships on the executive team are, it is likely the IT leader who is the least included and involved.
If this is true in your organization, you should know that the feeling of exclusion will carry down throughout the IT department. The rest of the IT staff will see that their leader is the least included in the executive team, which in turn affects their job satisfaction, retention, and turnover rates.
I recently spoke with a CIO friend of mine with 30 years of experience in technology management at several national law firms. He had two experiences that perfectly illustrate this concept.
The first story happened when he was the Director of Infrastructure at one of the largest law firms in the country. Together with his CIO, he had spent the better part of the year leading a complex construction project for the firm’s flagship office building which would end up housing about 1000 people.
My friend and his CIO were involved in every aspect of the project. The CIO was trusted to run project meetings and guide decision making. Business leadership, especially the C-suite, were supportive and extremely complimentary of their contributions.
The construction and move were both great successes. My friend says it was the most difficult but rewarding project he has ever been a part of. He and his CIO felt especially validated in the post move party, when the Chairman of the Board called attention to how important they were in the success of the project.
After the move things changed quickly.
It started with their removal from the weekly construction coordination meetings. The meetings were still being held, but the two IT leaders were told their part was done. The CIO then noticed that his recurring weekly meetings with the COO were being canceled at the last minute without any follow up or rescheduling. Eventually, those meetings were canceled entirely.
The final straw was the CIO’s removal from the executive board monthly meetings. When he finally got some time with the COO and brought up his concerns, he was told that the meetings were returning to a focus on business operations that don’t involve IT.
My friend explained, “All the goodwill, all the validation, and all the progress we felt we had made to become peers was lost with that one comment. Within a few months, I left the firm to pursue my first CIO opportunity. A short time later the CIO left as well.”
Later in his career, my friend had a similar experience, but this one ended on a more positive note thanks to a Champion business leader.
He had been with a midsize firm as their CIO for only a few months, when he was invited to attend his first strategic planning meeting at an offsite retreat. As he entered and sat down, the chairman of the firm approached, introduced himself and shook his hand. Then, in a bad attempt at humor, the chairman asked loudly enough for everyone in the room to hear, “What does an IT guy have to do with the strategic planning of the firm?“
My friend laughed nervously, sat down and stared at his laptop for the remainder of the meeting. At the first break, he noticed that his new boss, the Chief Operating Officer, was speaking to the chairman in the corner of the conference room. Later she related what she told the chairman of the board: “Our CIO is a part of my team and my team will be part of every strategy meeting you ever do while you have me as your COO.” The Champion business leader stood up for her team member in the moment when his seat at the table was challenged. She continued to advocate for him and the entire IT team, convincing the rest of the C-suite to trust their leadership.
My friend became emotional when he described his admiration for the COO. “From that point on, I would’ve jumped in front of a train for her! But it wasn’t just about making us feel good. Her actions helped us earn the respect we would need to transform the operations of the firm.”
Guidance to Business Leaders
Two weeks ago, I shared a model for understanding the different types of business leaders relative to their interaction with IT: Agitators, Underdogs, Showboats and Champions.
Agitators and Underdogs believe that every aspect of IT is dependent upon deep technical knowledge that they do not comprehend. Showboats also believe that IT management is all about the technology; and they think they know all about it. These perceptions widen the chasm between IT and the business. Neither perception is true.
Business leaders who get the best return on their investment in technology are those who have a healthy relationship with their IT leaders. This is one of the keys to being a Champion business leader.
So now it’s time to reveal one simple truth of aligning the technology strategy to the business strategy.
Good technology management is really just good business management.
CEOs and other nontechnical executives need not be intimidated by the IT function within their company. Champion business leaders know that the skills required to effectively lead a team of technology professionals are no different from the skills required to lead sales and marketing professionals or finance and accounting professionals or an operations team. They are the communication, delegation, team-building, and organization skills that comprise solid leadership.
Champion business leaders respect the contributions and potential of their IT leaders and treat them as peers. Showboats and Agitators tend to micro-manage the IT function, demanding excessively frequent status updates, conveying impatience and dissatisfaction, and getting far too involved in the details of IT management. Underdogs, however, are more likely to avoid discussions with their IT leader, convey expectations through an intermediary, and focus too much on specific dates and deliverables rather than overall business outcomes. Champion business leaders set a clear direction and then trust their IT leader to determine the best way to accomplish the desired results. They check in often enough to be a valuable resource, helping to eliminate obstacles to success.
Champion business leaders understand that their IT leader should really be a business leader with a technology background and will help them develop into one if they aren’t already.
The IT Leader Is a Business Leader
Here is the important point for business leaders: because good technology management is really just good business management, you should treat your technology leader like a business leader. Set similar expectations of them that you have of your other functional leaders. Share the same information with them that you share with the other members of the executive team, including details of the business strategy, planned organizational changes, acquisition intentions, financial results, etc. Include the technology leader in all executive discussions and strategic conversations. Ask their opinion.
You need your IT leader to act, think, and contribute like a true business leader. But they will never be able to do that until you begin interacting with them like a true business leader. You must convey that expectation and then give them the opportunity to learn, to rise to the occasion, and to prove themselves. Even if you give your IT leader the title of VP or CIO, they won’t be able to fill that role if they are treated like an entry-level supervisor.
One way this happens, even in companies with the best of intentions, is when the IT leader is a part of the official executive leadership team and is invited to participate in the monthly meeting just like all the other functional leaders, providing their update to the team along with everyone else, but the real business of running the business happens in other meetings with the “core” leadership team, and the IT leader is not included in those events.
One well-intentioned reason for leaving out IT, and possibly other departments, is a desire to keep confidential information limited to as few people as possible. This is often why technology leaders are left out of some financial discussions, acquisition planning, or conversations about layoffs. But business leaders should remember that the IT department is entrusted with protecting the technology systems and data—even the most sensitive data that the organization stores and transfers. If you trust your technology leader to oversee the management of the company’s databases, email systems, and network, then you should be able to trust them with knowledge of an upcoming acquisition. Put another way, if you don’t feel you can trust your IT leader with confidential information that is discussed among the executive team, then you have the wrong person in charge of information technology.
The benefits of having the IT leader involved in all executive-level conversations is significant. Tactically, it helps them respond to business changes more quickly and effectively if they know about upcoming changes from the beginning. Resource planning, scheduling of maintenance, new system releases, and other logistical considerations can all be done more proactively instead of as knee-jerk reactions. I’ve seen IT leaders who were only informed of a major reduction in force, an activity that requires the security team to process access terminations to ensure data security, from the all-company email. If you’ve ever lamented that you wish your IT leader were more proactive, consider whether you are giving them enough information early enough to be proactive. Or, are they left reacting to each new direction after it has already been decided?
Acquisitions are another event where IT is commonly left in the dark until a letter of intent is signed or, worse, until the deal closes. In the current cybersecurity threat landscape, that is practically a negligent business practice. Your technology leader should be involved in the due diligence process to assess and harden the information security controls of the acquisition target well before any public announcements are made, since such announcements are basically a beacon to attackers advertising, “Hack us! We’re all distracted and vulnerable right now!”
Beyond the logistical benefits, involving your IT leader in the actual business leadership of the organization can have strategic benefits as well. They may have valuable insight and perspectives. The IT leader may be the only person with the knowledge to identify major security gaps, significant technical debt, or other issues that would affect the purchase price of an acquisition. They can also provide guidance on business initiatives. I recall one business that made the decision to rebrand the company under a new name, without ever consulting the IT leader on the cost and time required to change domain names and apply a new style guide to every application and website.
Finally, the benefit to the IT leader themselves should not be overlooked. Sure, you can outsource the IT due diligence and security assessment of an acquisition target to a third-party. You can hire consultants to provide technology guidance on business initiatives. But, if you do so, your IT leader will not gain the experience and knowledge to fill that role for you, and they will feel frustrated and held back from professional growth and development. Even if you do engage outside consultants for some technology-related activities, allow your IT leader to be part of the process, for the sake of their own learning if nothing else.
IT leaders will become better at budgeting and managing the IT department spending if they are involved in the financial reviews of the organization. They will be better able to put their department’s spending into perspective, identify opportunities for cost reductions, and manage the balance between operational expenses, capital expenditures, and IT labor costs if they are involved in the budget planning and financial analysis for the whole organization.
Your IT leader needs to be a part of the business leadership processes and the real executive leadership meetings. They need to have meaningful involvement. Don’t just invite them to be the audio-visual expert in the room, making sure the projector works properly and that everyone can get logged into the Zoom call. In fact, when technology problems happen, call the help desk. Your IT leader is there as a business leader, so don’t diminish them to the role of tech support. In executive discussions, ask for their opinion. Give them responsibilities appropriate to their role. Give them a voice and a vote in decision-making. Treat them like a fully capable business leader, just like everyone else at the table.